Source: Energy & Management Powernews, 07 October 2022
By the end of the year, a draft law on municipal heat planning could be available, said Kerstin Deller of the Federal Ministry of Economics at the BMWK symposium on waste heat use.
The municipal heat planning should be introduced as soon as possible in all German states. "We would like to have a first draft of a law on municipal heat planning by the end of the year," said Kerstin Deller of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWK) as a speaker at the BMWK symposium "Climate protection through waste heat recovery", which was held on October 5. The BMWK is working on this, according to the head of Unit IIA2 - Heat Networks, Heat Planning, Municipal Heat Turnaround. The waste heat conference was held at the old main customs office in Hamburg and was also live-streamed. The hybrid event was organized by the Institute for Future Energy and Material Flow Systems (izes) and sponsored by the BMWK.
The municipal heat planning (KWP) "is to be a central coordination instrument for the heat turnaround on site," said Deller. In addition, the heat planning should in the future create investment security for the necessary development of infrastructure, especially for heat networks, but also for gas and electricity grids. In line with the coalition agreement, he said, the German government is committed to nationwide rollout. According to the BMWK, KWP is a central building block of the energy transition and an important step on the way to greater independence from imported fossil fuels.
Discussion paper on municipal heat planning as a basis
Already in July, the BMWK had published a discussion paper on the planned law for municipal heat planning . Among other things, it is envisaged that municipalities of a size of around 10,000 to 20,000 inhabitants or more will be obliged to carry out such planning. In future, the heat plans to be drawn up are to consist of an inventory analysis, an analysis of potential, target scenarios and an action strategy. The municipalities are to be authorized by the federal law to request the necessary data, for example from energy suppliers, chimney sweeps or also from companies. Such central planning is intended to accelerate the heat turnaround. It is also hoped that this will provide a better data basis, for example to better tap waste heat potential and plan the necessary heating networks. The range of tasks within heat planning is to be broad: These include the creation of heat registers, the monitoring of heat network expansion, the decarbonization of existing networks, the securing of areas for energy generation and for energy storage, as well as concepts for the refurbishment of public buildings.
To ensure that there is a central point of contact for questions, a Competence Center for Municipal Heat Change (KWW) was launched in Halle in April 2022. In order to be able to realize heat planning in municipalities, the KWW is intended to act as a nationwide networked platform that reliably provides well-founded information, bundles existing knowledge and prepares it in a clear manner. The Competence Center Municipal Heat Turnaround is being set up and operated by the German Energy Agency (Dena) on behalf of the BMWK.
In some German states, municipal heat planning is already mandatory, for example in Baden-Württemberg and Schleswig-Holstein.
Author: Heidi Roider
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